My First Whole30: Completed!

I have officially finished thirty days of no dairy, gluten, legumes, sugar, processed food, and alcohol (well, the one exception). Was it hard? Surprisingly…it wasn’t too bad. I felt good when I started the thirty days. I feel good now.

I mentioned in my initial post that my typical day of eats excludes the majority of these things. The only thing I missed was my daily Greek yogurt + fresh berries and cream cheese (processed) on my sweet potato (I ended up using almond butter or coconut oil instead which was delicious but I still love a bit of cream cheese on there for a tasty treat.)

After all was said and done – I didn’t loose any weight. I assume this was due to 1) not too drastic of a change in my eats and 2) my consumption of almond butter.

Post-Whole30 Thoughts:

Positives: I’m glad that I stuck to the thirty day commitment. I need to push myself more often and stick to short-term (and long-term goals.)

I’m curious to continue a lifestyle without gluten + dairy; however, I won’t say that I’ll exclusively commit to this.

I enjoyed eating ‘paleo’ much more than I thought. It felt good to eat meat again. I mentioned that I hadn’t eaten bacon in six or seven years until this month. Fresh bacon from the farmers market > processed grocery bacon!

Negatives: I wouldn’t recommend the Whole30 to someone who already eats an 80/20 diet. In my opinion, I ate a TON more almond butter than I would’ve had I had not been on the Whole30. I think the mentality of ‘I can’t enjoy dessert or a sweet treat’ contributed to binging behaviors.

I’m not sure if I’ll do another Whole30; however, I plan to eat (mostly) ‘paleo’ for the foreseeable future. Some exceptions would be a morning bowl of oats (I’m not sure I could go without a hot bowl on a cold winter morning) or an occasional treat to celebrate a birthday/holiday.

15 thoughts on “My First Whole30: Completed!”

Congrats on finishing the Whole 30!! I wish you luck in trying gluten/ dairy free! I’m gluten, dairy and soy intolerant… so I know how challenging it can be at first, but it DEF gets easier with time!! 🙂 You did great!

I have been transitioning to sunflower seed butter because I think seeds are easier on my system, but then again I’m not sure. I’m trying to not be so dependent on nuts and seeds, but they’re just SO GOOD.

Congrats on finishing the Whole30! I would like to do something similar, minus the meat. I eat well but still eat more processed food than I would like and I think it’s why my skin has broken out recently. Did you come to NY?

Thanks Holly! I didn’t actually end up coming to NYC. I totally dropped the ball on emailing you to let you know. Marty ended up having a work meeting and we didn’t have enough time to take the trip. We definitely plan on taking our annual trip after Christmas so you and I should meet up then!

I am doing it right now 🙂 I’m on day 6. I don’t find it hard either. I have a sweet tooth so that’s definitely one thing I miss. And I also love cheese, milk and yogurt. And the smell of freshly baked bread right out of my oven is something I think about a lot lol. BUT.. . Having said all that, I do feel lighter. Not necessary lost weight but I have this feeling of lightness that I like. I’ll see how I feel on day 30 but I’m considering making this a permanent choice of eating.
Good for you for sticking with it! Way to go!

I’ve been looking forward to reading your thoughts on Whole30. While I most likely wouldn’t follow it to a T, I would love to introduce more fruit and veggie based meals vs. so much bread, pasta, etc..

I recently did a similar 30 day challenge through a friend of mine who sells Juice Plus. The one thing I really did notice was an increase in my energy, which I’m very thankful for. I know that I typically eat too much sugar, so it was good for me to do without for a while.
However, I didn’t really lose any weight either! I’m usually a pretty healthy eater, everything in moderation, so that’s probably why.
But yes – like you – I plan to continue eating less gluten and dairy and finding ways to use natural sweeteners in my baked goods from time to time.

Truthfully, no, I’m not interested in completing the Whole 30 diet, but I am interested in incorporating some of the recipes into my regular routine! I’ve been eating a lot more meat since finding out my iron was low (the vitamins hurt my stomach, so I actually fixed it just by eating more meat — or at least I’m assuming that’s what made my levels return to “normal,” because that’s all I changed between blood tests!). I still eat a lot of vegetarian meals, but when I do eat meat, I find that I stay full much longer, and Jordan enjoys our meals more too!

I definitely felt the same way about our no sugar thing! I ate way more salty snacks that I think I would have avoided if I could have just eaten something sweet! Just because the french fries were sugar free doesn’t mean they did my body any good 😉 I agree with the 80/20 thing. But it IS a good feeling when you’re able to accomplish something like this! Nice work on sticking to it!!

I have yet to try the whole 30 diet but it does sound yummy! I like you eat this way more often than not anyway. Although I have found that I have been eating more gluten recently. I ebb and flow in my commitment to not eating it! I agree with you though it is so important to commit to small and large goals 🙂 Congrats on completing it!!

I made it 15 days on Whole30. I liked the basic idea of the program, but I already ate a pretty solid 80/20 diet so I really didn’t experience any major changes or improvement in my weight or how I felt. Since I already ate a pretty healthy, wholesome diet, I felt like Whole30 was too restrictive for me even though I knew it was short term. I also felt like it was a bit too much meat (I used to be vegetarian and only started eating meat when I was diagnosed with a gluten intolerance that even further limited my food choices). I missed oats and Greek yogurt, which I don’t feel are unhealthy foods. I got tired of potatoes and missed brown rice (another food that I don’t feel is bad for me). I didn’t follow the guidelines to limit fruit. Another big thing I took away from the program is that it’s hard to complete when you have a lot going on. I think I’d prefer giving it another shot in January or February, when there aren’t any big holidays or social engagements planned. I would like to give it another shot this winter because I’m really curious about the re-introductory period. I think that’s probably where you learn the most about your body and what it can/cannot tolerate in terms of food. Way to go completing the entire 30 days!

I’m trying to convince myself to do another Whole30 in October. It’ll be one year since my last one. David and I think it’d be good to “reset” what we had learned doing it the first time around. We still eat mostly paleo during the weeks but on the weekends we definitely aren’t as strict.

Good for you completing the Whole30. I’m kind of surprised you didn’t lose any weight, but then again it’s not really a diet to lose weight. Did you eat any whole nuts rather than just always almond butter? Also, just wondering but how much almond butter do you think you ate a day? I eat about 1.5 tablespoons mon-fri. Congrats on finishing! I’m sure you’re excited to enjoy a glass of wine here and there. 😉